Sunday, July 24, 2011

Corinne Vionnet: This Is The World As Tourist Spots

So, you've arrived at a popular tourist spot and you've bought your cute little souvenir. What's left to do but take a few shots at that thing that everybody else is taking a few shots at? If you happen to miss that amazing landmark that everyone seems to be so excited about, don't worry as artist Corrine Vionnet has you covered. She's arranged all the most popular pictures into one mosaic so that you won't have to bother yourself with taking your own picture.

Corrine Vionnet is an artist who doesn't need to own a camera in order to get the most amazing photographs of the world's most famous sites. All she needs is a computer and the generosity of hundreds of other people who've shared their own pictures on social networks and photo sharing sites.

Vionnet combs through the internet using the most widespread names and descriptions that immediately illustrates the tourist spot that she has in mind. She takes up to 300 individual photographs, mostly from vacation pictures, and arranges them carefully across a central point in the landmark. The result is both familiar and original.

If any of these shots look too common, that's partly the point of Vionnet's project. By combining photographs from people all over the world, her images take on a universal impression. Whether it might be due to physical constraints at the site, or it might be the most visually appealing vantage point, most people seem to settle on a few angles that appear to be the convention for everyone with a camera.

That's not to say that all these shots that make up these super-impositions are ordinary or derivative. While it is true that on their own, an individual shot might not carry much meaning save for what it's worth to the person who took it, however, all compiled together, they represent individual brush strokes in a grander vision of that particular place.

Vionnet could've taken all the individual frames herself, but the results wouldn't be as meaningful as the collective expression of Internet users and photo uploaders. Indeed, while the subjects themselves remain unchanging as the stones from which they are built from, the resulting images are still open to the individual interpretation of the viewer.

So the next time you're at a famous monument or landmark, don't just think about how it will look in your family album; there's still a chance that it might end up in one of Vionnet's amazing artworks.

I think this is really cool and maybe I'm a baby or just have sensitive eyes but if I look at these photos too long they kinda give me a headache because of the bluriness factor. :) I love the concept though